Practical Technology

If you spend much time in a CIO or CTO’s office, you’ll have heard the phrase “software stack” a million times. It usually means a suite of operating system, utilities, and applications designed to deliver various services. For example, the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) stack is what lies behind many Web sites, and the [...]

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OK, I tried to resist but I can’t help myself: I told you so. I’ve said for over a year that with Oracle in charge OpenSolaris would be toast, and I had people tell me that I was just spreading FUD. Even after it became abundantly clear that Oracle was going to let it die [...]

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Nexenta, an open-source organization that’s been trying to “combine the OpenSolaris kernel with the GNU/Debian user experience,” has announced a new open-source effort called Illumos. Nexenta proclaims this “is a 100% community-driven and -owned effort that aims to provide an alternative to a critical part of the OpenSolaris distribution, freeing it from dependence on Oracle’s [...]

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I get that Oracle runs on open-source software. I know that Oracle is a major Linux supporter. But, please, please don’t mistake Oracle as an open-source, open-core, or any other kind of “open” business at heart. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s CEO, is all about making billions of dollars. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s what all [...]

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Good-bye OpenSolaris. It’s been fun knowing you. Unfortunately for you, it’s become all too clear that your new parent company, Oracle doesn’t want a thing to do with you. I predicted that Oracle, which is a Linux company, was going to let OpenSolaris die off by neglect, but most people disagreed with me. Folks insisted [...]

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